"British/Australian/Indian Jungle Green" Topic

Hello.

I'm building a rather large force in 28mm for the Pacific with Australians, Indians, Ghurkas, British, Chindits… Did they use the same or similar shade of jungle green for all of them?, or were there huge variations?.

Also, I think the Australians used the khaki drill that were used at the desert when New Guinea campaign started, is it correct?.

There was a lot of variation, and the jungle green uniforms looked darker when wet.

"Khaki Drill & Jungle Green" by Martin J Brayley and Richard Ingram is a good on British tropical uniforms.

Tony Barton has this to say on JG for post-1943 Burma:

link

John Bond has a good step-by-step guide for his New Guineau Aussies:

link

And so does Warlord for the early Militia troops:

link

FYI, khaki drill (8th Army uniforms) with green helmets would have been the norm for the Japanese invasions of Malaya/Borneo/Burma/NEI/Hong Kong.

I have read, unfortunately I can't 100% remember where but I think either here link or here link that the Australians initially wore desert uniforms dyed khaki aboard ship which unexpectedly came out grey-blue. Equally unexpectedly it worked well in the jungle.

Thanks a lot to all!. Many great information to read.

G'day, Goblin.

The AMF troops sent to PNG ( and the 8th Division AIF troops sent to Indonesia and Singapore ) did wear light khaki drill uniforms, which were dyed with various versions of green dye, where possible, that the troops managed to "claim". Ian Kuring's "Redcoat to Cams" mentions it, from memory. The first "jungle green" uniforms didn't start being made until mid- to late 1942. The khaki drill uniforms weren't as visible as you may think, especially when muddy and sweaty.

The slouch hat would be rarely seen with the left side brim fastened up. That was and is the configuration for parades and wearing with dress uniforms, for dress of the day and in the field it was brim down- it keeps the rain and sun off much better with the brim down.

There's plenty of photos you can see at the Australian War Memorial ( awm.gov.au/advanced-search ) . Search terms such as Kokoda, Buna, Milne Bay, etc, should bring up dozens.

Cheers.

Basically – Khaki drill in the early battles
Late 42/43 – Green dyed khaki drill, so there were all sorts of shades of green.
Late 43 -45 – Purpose designed jungle uniform. Dark green. Brown violet is a good paint colour.